1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to twisted pair cables having conductive elements within or attached to a separator or a jacket wall. More particularly, the present invention relates to communications patching systems, equipment and methods for automatically tracking connections in communications networks, wherein the conductive elements within or attached to the separator or jacket wall are used to achieve the tracking between ports of a patch panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present application relates to the Assignee's prior applications, Ser. No. 12/545,096, filed Aug. 21, 2009, and Ser. No. 12/787,486, filed May 26, 2010, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a brief description of the basic system found in the two above applications follows. The basic system described in prior application Ser. Nos. 12/545,096 and 12/787,486 provides a background understanding of the present invention, but should not be considered admitted prior art.
In the basic system shown in FIG. 1, a patch panel 700 has a first row 720 of ports and a second row 730 of ports. A third row 600 of electrical contact pads is interposed between the first and second rows 720 and 730 of ports. Electrical pads 621 and 622 correspond to upper port 721 and electrical pads 621′ and 622′ correspond to lower port 731.
FIG. 2 illustrates a patch cord 400 in accordance with the background art. The patch cord 400 includes a first plug 420 at a first end of the patch cord 400 and a second plug 420′ at a second end of the patch cord 400. The first plug 420 includes first and second electrical contact pins X and Y. The second plug 420′ includes third and fourth electrical contact pins X′ and Y′. The first pin X of the first plug 420 is electrically connected to the third pin X′ of the second plug 420′ via a first electrically conductive wire 409. The second pin Y of the first plug 420 is electrically connected to the fourth pin Y′ of the second plug 420′ via a second electrically conductive wire 410.
When the first plug 420 is inserted into the upper port 721, the first and second pins X and Y make electrical contact with the electrical pads 621 and 622, respectively. When the second plug 420′ is inserted in to the lower port 731, the third and fourth pins X′ and Y′ make electrical contact with the electrical pads 622′ and 621′, respectively. The electrical circuits formed by the pins X, Y, X′, Y′ and the pads 621, 622, 621′, 622′ are used to determine the interconnection made by the patch cord 400, such that a mapping of the patch cords, as connected to the various ports of the patch panels, can be facilitated. In particular, a signal of approximately 10 KHz is transmitted through the formed electrical circuit and used by the mapping system to determine the port-to-port connections. The mapping system is more fully described in the above-two, incorporated-by-reference applications by the present Assignee.